U.S. Attorney Ken Magidson announced Friday he is stepping down from his position as chief law enforcement officer for the Southern District of Texas on the same day Attorney General Jeff Sessions asked for the resignation of all remaining U.S. attorneys appointed during the Obama administration.

"It has been an honor and privilege to serve," Magidson, 68, said in a statement. "It has been a hallmark of my administration to ensure that our office lived up to the ideals of justice."

Magidson, a Washington, D.C., native who received his law degree from South Texas College of Law, was nominated by President Barack Obama in June 2011 and began serving as U.S. attorney on Sept. 30, 2011, following his unanimous confirmation by the U.S. Senate.

Prior to his nomination for U.S. attorney by a Democrat, Magidson was appointed by then-Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican and currently secretary of energy in the Trump administration, as Harris County's interim district attorney following the 2008 resignation of former DA Chuck Rosenthal.

Sessions' order affects all 46 remaining U.S. attorneys. According to the Tribune News Service, 47 others have already resigned.

Seeking the resignations of politically appointed U.S. attorneys is not unprecedented, especially when a new political party moves into the White House. In 1993, following the election of President Bill Clinton, Attorney General Janet Reno sacked the ones who had been appointed by President George H.W. Bush. At the time, Sessions was a U.S. attorney in Alabama.

Under the administrations of George W. Bush and Barack Obama, the departures of the sitting U.S. attorneys were generally staggered until their successors were confirmed.

Justice Department spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores said Sessions wanted to "ensure a uniform transition" to the incoming administration and said career prosecutors will run things until the new U.S. attorneys are confirmed, according to the Tribune News Service.

Magidson's second-in-command, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Abe Martinez, is expected to assume control of the Southern District of Texas which stretches from the Houston area to Laredo and employs 370 people, including about 180 assistant U.S. attorneys.

During his 5 ½-year tenure, federal prosecutors in Magidson's office won almost 40,000 convictions. Among those was Omar Faraj Al Hardan, a 24-year-old Houston man charged with attempting to travel overseas and join ISIS. In November 2014, Al Hardan took a loyalty oath to the terrorist organization, according to his plea agreement. Prior to his arrest, he had taken tactical training with an AK-47 and said he wanted to learn how to build remote detonators for improvised explosive devices. He remains in custody at the Federal Detention Center in Houston and is facing 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

In July 2016, Magidson's office secured a 46-month federal prison sentence for a former St. Louis Cardinals executive convicted of hacking the Astros.

"This is a serious federal crime. It involves computer crime - cybercrime," Magidson said at the time. "This is a very serious offense and obviously the court saw it as well."

The Southern District of Texas also focused on combatting sexual exploitation crimes against children - convicting on average one defendant each week during Magidson's tenure - and human trafficking.

Hortencia Medeles-Arguello, also known as Raquel Garcia or "Tencha," was the woman behind a 14-defendant sex trafficking ring operating in Houston. Following a 10 day trial in April 2015, a federal jury convicted her on all counts and sentenced her to life in prison.

"These were human beings - women and children - who were treated as a commodity," Magidson said after the trial. "They came from their home countries hoping for a better life, only to be enslaved and forced into unspeakable acts."

On announcing his resignation, Magidson said his time spent as U.S. attorney in Houston was "a great blessing and a hallmark of my career."

"I am confident that our office will continue to live up to these ideals," Magidson said.

Mike Glenn grew up in the Navy but enlisted in the Army after graduating from high school in Rockwall, Texas. Following his honorable discharge, Glenn attended the University of Texas at Arlington where he received a BA in History and a commission as a lieutenant in the Army. He led a platoon of cavalry troopers in combat during the Gulf War. Glenn spent about six years in the Army - both as an enlisted soldier and officer. He then studied journalism in graduate school and began his career in the news business. He has worked as a newspaper reporter in the Dallas area, El Paso, San Antonio and now in Houston with the Houston Chronicle. Glenn is married and has a daughter in college.